Umberto I of Italy

Umberto I of Italy (14 March 1844-29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 to 29 July 1900, succeeding Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and preceding Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

Biography
Umberto was born in Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia on 14 March 1844, the son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and Adelaide of Austria. He served in the Royal Italian Army during the Italian Wars of Unification, fighting at the Battle of Solferino in 1859 and leading a division at Villafranca in 1866. Umberto married his cousin Margherita of Savoy in 1868, and he succeeded to the throne ten years later. He survived an assassination attempt by anarchist Giovanni Passannante shortly after his coronation, and Umberto would anger the anarchist movement by leading a conservative government. Umberto led Italy during its expansion into East Africa, overseeing the annexation of Eritrea in 1885 and Somalia later in the 1880s. Only the 1896 Battle of Massawa prevented the Italians from taking over Abyssinia as well. The East African wars led to bread shortages in Italy, and General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris put down dissent with the 1898 Bava-Beccaris massacre. Umberto congratulated Umberto on restoring order, and he gave him a medal; this was the last straw for the anarchist movement. On 29 July 1900, he was shot four times by Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci at a gymnastics display in Monza, Italy.